Wits Business School career resources

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Wits Business School (WBS) offers regular public lectures by guest speakers on topics relevant to working life and personal development. For more information, contact Thembeka Hlatshwayo: thembeka. hlatshwayo@wits. ac.za

A recent public lecture was “The Intrapreneurship Empowerment Model – How Innovative Companies Can Drive Growth”, by Hugh Molotsi, Silicon Valley-based innovator, entrepreneur, author, and founder and CEO of Ujama Inc, a platform for parents.

“Perhaps the most under-utilised assets in companies today are the ideas in their employees’ heads.”

This is the essence of innovation expert Hugh Molotsi’s message to business owners, managers, innovators and entrepreneurs.

Molotsi gave a public lecture at Wits Business School in April, as part of the programme of the Master of Management in Innovation Studies – a one-year full-time course designed with working students in mind.

Born to South African parents in exile in Zambia under apartheid, Molotsi studied computer engineering in the USA and became vice-president of innovation at Intuit, a software company in California. He now advises and invests in start-ups and is the co-author of The Intrapreneur’s Journey, a book about how to develop a culture of innovation at large companies.

Frontline staff are the people who interact with customers and get insights – but they don’t make the decisions in a company, Molotsi says. “Good things can happen if you empower employees to work on their ideas.” He gave several examples of game-changing products and processes that had come out of this approach in various companies.

Building a culture of innovation in a company means:

� Giving employees the time and freedom to explore ideas and make things that aren’t necessarily related to their main jobs

� Design thinking: having lots of ideas to get the best idea; rapid experiments with customers; learning to understand customers even better than they understand themselves

� Open collaboration; sharing ideas

� Experimentation: a cycle of building, measuring and learning; letting the best ideas win (and talking about the failures)

� Dedicated innovation teams: innovation requires leadership

� Understanding that innovation is everyone’s job

More about public lectures at WBS: www.wbs.ac.za/events/2019/

Online or classroom?

MBA courses are notorious for the demands they place on participants. What about Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) – would they be a more affordable and efficient way of getting this prestigious qualification? Well, not really, say many business schools. The classroom contact gives you something (and tests you in ways) that a pre-packaged online course doesn’t. So a combination of learning methods is probably best.

Charisse Drobis, head of Career Management Services at Wits Business School, spoke to Classic FM about the relevance of the MBA in a world full of disruptive forces. (You can listen to the podcast here) She said that the WBS curriculum constantly looks out for these environmental factors and lecturers are expected to be at the forefront of knowledge about them.

She said that MOOCs tend to have a high dropout rate. The advantage of physically being in a class is the opportunity to discuss and debate ideas and learn from your fellow students’ experiences. Learning to network is part of the Wits MBA programme. Especially now that there are other platforms for learning, lecturers have to make sure that students’ classroom time is used optimally.

The most important traits in an MBA student, Drobis said, are curiosity, open-mindedness, and receptiveness to learning and change. You have to be prepared to be uncomfortable and appreciate other people’s knowledge and experience.

Learn more about the Wits MBA: www.wbs.ac.za/ academic-programmes/mba/

WBS also offers masterclasses with practical tips for professionals.